NIGHTMARE CASTLE, 2013

Yarr! What’s more fun than hunting for treasure in a dream world to exchange for cool powers to use while you explore? I know if I were evaluating my ability to write openers, I would give myself a solid ten. In any case, I recently learned a lot of things are more fun than treasure hunting, but that isn’t stopping Noyemi K from developing the futuristic 8-color “Nightmare Castle.” You might know Noyemi, formerly Mishka, by her earlier works like”Amihailu in Dreamland” and “Hell Diary,” or perhaps by her strange penchant for girls with black pixie cuts and cat ears.

Aside from filling this cat girl quota, unfortunately, “Nightmare Castle” does not bring a lot to the table. There are four portals in the Nexus for each of the two protagonists, and you will often find yourself accidentally stumbling into the many doors that link between them. Rather than an endless expanse that’s loads of mind-stimulating fun, “Nightmare Castle” plays more like you’re looking for house keys in the same four rooms, with the very slight possibility one of them contains a hidden trap door, and the rooms are mostly a series of hallways filled with east Asian decorum and identical pieces of furniture.

On the plus side, however, Noyemi K knows what she’s doing as far as production values go. The GUI is polished and as always her soundtracks are cute and enjoyable! It almost makes me wish I could just scroll through the assets while listening to the music instead of being forced to play the game. Oh wait, I can! Review on that next time.

ITER: ITINERIS, 2013

Debuting this week is the second update of avid monsterphile SesakaTH’s “Iter: Itineris,” a slimy, opthalmic, and vibrant-hued adventure regarding which I mean “slimy” in the most affectionate, Nick Cannon-ian way possible.

SesakaTH, one of the illustrators behind “Dream Vs. Dream” and “HOME,” has crafted this game from a refreshing artistic perspective. Areas include less sprite work as opposed to full resolution drawings and sprite sheets are sometimes drawn to mimic 3D vantage points. The heroine Ava finds a portal in her guest room to the Distortion Dimension and decides to investigate it, collecting xenovisions along the way. “Itir” features an atmospheric soundtrack that seems to be the aspect most often updated on the official tumblr and is always improving.

Effects, totaling three as of this recent release, are easy enough to find, and the areas so far reflect SesakaTH’s unique though mildly disturbing aesthetic, which makes this at the very least quite an interesting journey.

Future development hints at the inclusion of a suspenseful overarching plot, but don’t be fooled; “Iter: Itineris” is still in its early stages and thus far has only a modest amount of events and content, and is still in the stage of working out kinks. In the meantime, SesakaTH has also crafted up a few pages for it on the Fangame wiki. Baller!

Winner of Miss Best Effort seven years and counting, Plasterbrain spends her days pretending to code, writing music, and third bullet point. Her top three first dates would be hunting for slugs, writing fanfiction about Hanzo, and a joint Powerpoint presentation. Oh wait wait wait! Can I add a fourth? The fourth is Neopets.